By now, most of us are familiar with a game of poker and certainly testing the waters to know how good you are. There certainly are temptations of ditching your current job to pursue this skill-based game and play poker online full-time. After all, who doesn’t want to do what they love and are good at for a living?
However, there’s a flip side to every coin and poker may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It can be demanding on players and consider taking a shot only if you are genuinely interested in turning into a professional poker player. Here are the ups and downs of play poker online as a professional.
THE UPSIDE
Doing Something You Love
This is the main reason players turn professional, their passion and love for the game of poker. Further being able to turn that into a living is a dream come true in today’s world. If you don’t have the passion for it, playing poker online can be a demanding profession. It’s not just about beating the game for the successful poker players, but studying the complex poker strategy the game involves. This motivates them to study, learn and constantly improve their game.
Freedom and Flexibility
Setting your own work hours is a huge perk in any profession. Having this freedom and flexibility gives you the opportunity to stay motivated and not suffer from fatigue. Being your own boss means being accountable to no-one but yourself. There are very few jobs these days that offer the same level of independence as professional poker.
Earning Potential
Playing poker online certainly has a lot of money at the higher poker skill levels. It rewards the calculated risks you take and keeps you coming back for more.
THE DOWNSIDE
Variance
Variance is probably the biggest drawback to playing poker online or live poker for a living. It’s challenging in two ways:
Financially
A downswing can be destroying your poker bankroll and therefore managing your bankroll is essential for playing online poker professionally. Insulate yourself financially to get past the downswings and cushion the blow.
Emotionally
When you are on a bad run and keep getting unlucky, it can impact how you play the game and your motivation. The bad runs in online games of poker will be emotionally trying and there is no avoiding it. If we accept that downswings are inevitable, the variance becomes a lot easier to deal with.
Difficulty Assessing Your Win-Rate
Understanding your win-rate is an asset for any professional poker player. Being aware of your win-rate when playing poker cash game online or live certainly helps be prepared for the length and depth of the resulting downswings. A player with a high win-rate will experience shorter and shallower downswings than a player with a low win-rate. For these reasons, both live and online players need to take time out to decide if they have what it takes to play full-time.
Initial Capital Required
If you want to play poker online for a living, you need to have a bankroll that’s large enough to take a beating. They say, for a poker game of No-limit Hold’em, your bankroll should be at least 25-40 buy-ins. For Pot-limit Omaha, it needs to be much larger, because of how much more variance there is. PLO players should start out with at least 60-80 buy-ins.
Fatigue
When you begin to play poker card game online full time, chances are you will get tired eventually. Both a live venue and sitting in front of your laptop making 1000s of micro-decisions in a day can be exhausting. It’s a good idea to stay away from the felts for a few days when you feel over exerted mentally. This break helps you to return to your usual self and enjoy the game more than ever.
Also See : How to Play Poker
Conclusion
We hope we’ve given you a fair idea on the perks and perils of professional poker. Players globally are choosing poker as a viable career option and making a good living out of it. Domestic players aren’t that far behind either. A lot of Indians are breaking the stereotype and making a killing playing poker online professionally at best poker site in India like PokerBaazi. It all boils down to making informed decisions; keeping a host of factors in mind and choosing the path that suits one the best. Like we said, choosing poker as a career is an option today and no longer a dream!
